The power of the ballot box

As we've reported previously here on Deckboss, one of Alaska's six Community Development Quota organizations — Coastal Villages Region Fund — believes it is getting screwed on fish and crab catch shares.

Coastal argues its allocations are disproportionately small relative to the large population in its region.

That means CDQ companies representing smaller populations enjoy outsized catch shares, Coastal says.

Thus far, Alaska's congressional delegation has rebuffed Coastal's requests to rebalance the CDQ allocations, which have been in place for several years.

Now Coastal is mounting a voter registration drive, which would seem a warning to any elected official not onboard with rebalancing.

“Honestly, we lack the political savvy that some individuals from other smaller CDQ groups possess, but our sheer voting power is a force to be reckoned with," says Coastal's Dawson Hoover. "We are being politically discriminated against because of these unjust allocations."